Services at Saint Alban will not be held, but the regular 6:30 pm Eucharist at The Brunswick will be held.

September 2018

On Sunday mornings during September, services will NOT be held in the Chapel; only the 6:30 pm service of Holy Eucharist at The Brunswick will be celebrated.

Thursday Study Group

The Thursday evening Study Group is currently studying A Way in the Wilderness, a commentary on the Rule of Benedict for the physically and spiritually imprisoned by James Bishop. Join us each Thursday evening at 7:00 pm following the 6:00 pm Low Mass. There will be no session on 16 August.

Septuagint or Masoretic Texts?

Which translation of the Old Testament is "authentic?" Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles use the Septuagint as the text for the Old Testament. Protestant and Jewish Bibles use the Masoretic texts. This article helps to further our knowledge of which Old Testament text to use.

So, which Bible is "correct?" See our comments under "The Lectionary" below.

"Something About Mary"

Here is an interesting article about the Blessed Virgin borrowed from a posting by the Missionary Diocese of All Saints', the Anglo-Catholic diocese of the Anglican Church in North America. (Mea culpa for the theft!)

While the benefits of the Holy Rosary are well known to Western Christians, the Eastern tradition of reciting The Jesus Prayer is not so known. Archbishop Robert Parlotz has prepared a thoughtful piece on this important spiritual practice. Click below to read or download his short essay on the subject.

Anointing of sick and infirm persons is a tradition among Anglicans. Although traditionally reserved for those who are "gravely ill", in recent years this anointing has also been extended to those who have illnesses or infirmities, both of body and soul, that are not life threatening. We provide anointing after the Sunday Sung Mass on the first Sunday of each month. We also provide this ministry at The Brunswick each Sunday.

Also on this Website

Go to the "Bishop Yingling" section and scroll down to find a copy of the Order of Service for the Consecration and several photos from that service in 2001.

Churchman's Ordo Kalendar - 2018 Available

The Ashby Churchman's Ordo Kalendar for 2018 is available from us for $6.00 postpaid. Drop us a line or email us for your copy. Bishop Yingling has been the editor/compiler of this work for over 20 years, plus several years co-editing it with the late Father Donald Garfield, once Rector of S. Mary the Virgin Church in New York City.

With regard to the Ashby Calendars, the Churchman's Ordo Kalendar essentially follows the kalendar in The Anglican Service Book and Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 2006. Those who purchase the Ashby Episcopal Edition of the kalendar, also edited by Bishop Yingling, should know that this edition strictly follows the official kalendar of the BCP 1979. There is considerable confusion in the Episcopal Church circles about the calendar. Holy Women, Holy Men is now "out" and the successor publication has not yet been made official. So the 2006 edition is still official. So, for Anglo-Catholics, the Churchman's Ordo edition is the choice.

Some Numbers to Remember

Here is an interesting little brochure with "numbers" for Christians to live with and by:

Although we use The English Missal for every Mass, the lectionary (readings) vary from year to year. This year, 2016-17, we are using the readings from The English Missal. Next year we will use Year B of the three-year lectionary. We alternate between three years of the RCL followed by a year from the traditional.

By the way, we generally use the Revised Standard Version (RSV), Catholic Edition for our readings. The weekday Masses stick to the Authorized Standard Version as published in The English Missal. For personal study, we recommend either the RSV, Catholic Edition, or the RSV with the Apocrypha (Oxford University Press). If you use a New Revised Standard Version, be sure it is the Catholic Edition, which does not take liberties with gender. The question as to which edition of Biblical texts is "best" is a complicated one, but a "rule of thumb" is to look at Psalm 1: if the first verse reads, "Blessed is the man..." then the text has not been altered to fit a "gender inclusive" agenda. But, there are so many other issues involved! A good work on the topic is the Essential Guide to Bible Versions, by Philip W. Comfort, PhD, published by Tyndale House Publishers (ISBN 0-8423-3484-X). Unfortunately this work is out-of-print, but used copies are available if you diligently search the Internet.

At the present time we are not able to post The Word to our website. Please email us at byingling@hotmail.com to receive a copy of the current month's edition.

Abbot Gueranger, OSB

In the Nineteenth Century, Dom Gueranger, the Abbot of Solesmes in France produced an historic and monumental liturgical work, The Liturgical Year. This fifteen-volume commentary on each day of the liturgical year has been republished in the English translation of 1949. A lesser known work is Dom Gueranger's Explanation of the Prayers and Ceremonies of Mass. We found this on the Internet, and translated it into the Adobe .pdf format.

Like many Anglo-Catholic parishes, we have had to produce a loose-leaf edition of an altar missal. We substantially use The English Missal, but have modified it a bit (such as the use of the Proper Prefaces from the BCP 1979 and the three-year lectionary). We call our edition The York Missal. The entire English Missal, with propers, is used every fourth year (and on weekdays), so that we are able to take advantage of both the three-year lectionary and the traditional one. If you would like a copy of our altar edition (the Ordinary only), contact Bishop Yingling.

What is Anglo-Catholicism?

That is a question that we are often asked. Saint Alban Church is clearly Anglo-Catholic, but just what does that mean? We found the following essay from Father John Alexander on a website some time ago, and thought it was the best concise explanation we have discovered.

And, as if all of this is not enough, we have also had to develop some musical settings for the Mass for our own use. The Missa York setting uses a mix of plainchant and "Continental" chant from various sources which are quite singable for small congregations, and the Missal Marialis is, well, the Missal Marialis! We also have the Missa Simplicor of Merbecke, which should be most familiar to Anglicans.

In the pews at Saint Alban Church one will find copies of The Anglican Service Book. The book is also the basis for the Ashby Churchman's Ordo Kalendar, edited by our Rector, Bishop Barry E. Yingling, CSSS. This excellent liturgical and devotional work is the product of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. We understand that the pew edition is currently out-of-print, but the Altar Edition is available. We pray that another printing of the pew edition will occur. In the meantime, here is a download with the complete Anglican Service Book.

The Tridentine Latin Mass is occasionally celebrated at Saint Alban Church, as announced. The Private Prayers of the Celebrant are always recited in Latin, and on some Sundays the Canon is recited in Latin as well.

The celebration of a Latin Mass, whether the Tridentine (now referred to as the Extraordinary Rite) or the Novus Ordo, is unusual in the Anglican tradition. From the very beginning, however, Anglicanism never completely “outlawed” the celebration of Mass in Latin. The stipulation was that it needed to be intelligible to those who participated, so its use was primarily among the academic circles in Cambridge and Oxford. Although the Tridentine rite (from the Council of Trent) was not the Mass in use at the time of the English reformation, its use has become more universal.

So, why do we celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass at Saint Alban's? One of our missions is to maintain the liturgical traditions of the church that, alas, have been largely ignored since the 1970's. We believe that the worship of Our Lord is a very serious thing indeed, and that the language used to address our Sovereign Lord and God should not be pedestrian. Our usual celebrations of the Eucharist and the Daily Office are in Elizabethan English, not the ordinary language used on the street or in so many churches today. The use of Latin, then, carries us to an even higher realm, addressing God as so many have done since the very earliest days of Christendom.

In short, when we use Latin in the Mass, we link ourselves to the universal use of the church throughout the ages, using language that recognizes the awesome nature of God.

Here is a wonderful study of the traditional Mass, Latin or otherwise: